Kaštel Lukšić

In the western part of modern Kaštel Lukšić Mihovil Rosani built his castle in 1482. This is an obvious example that castles were built on the sea reefs. There was a small village around Rušinac, which was abandoned due to security reasons. The church of St. Ivan is there.

Nikola i Jerolim Vitturi, noblemen from Trogir, get the doge’s permission to build a castle by the sea in order to protect their families and peasants of the Ostrog village on the Balovan reef. The castle was completed as a lavish palace in 1564. it consisted of residential two-story building with balcony and emergency exit to the sea on the south side and of two defensive keeps and a drawbridge as a connection with the mainland on the northern side. The drawbridge was replaced with a one-arc stone bridge in the 18th century. In the center of the castle is a yard with arcades and galleries on the 1st and 2nd floor.

The Museum of the Town of Kaštela, the Tourism Board of Kaštela and some cultural institutions found their place in the renovated Vitturi castle today. It becomes a cultural center of the town. Exhibitions, concerts, theatre shows take place there.

A village with a defensive wall was built around the castle. The Gothic – Renaissance Gospe od Uznesenja church is on the northern edge of the old village and was built in 1530 in the Gothic style. The new parish church was built from 1776 -1817 in the Late Baroque style. Is a real treasury of artwork, paintings and statues. It keeps a Piazzetta’s Baroque crucifix (17th century), an chalice cover of Palma Junior (16th century) – “Madonna’s Assumption”, a painting “Madonna with the child” (15th century) at the main altar, the altar grave of St. Arnir, a work of Juraj Dalmatinac (15th century).

There is also the Tataglia – Ambrossini castle in Lukšić. Dr. Henrik Šoulavy from Prague visited Kaštela in 1903, bought that castle, and in it in 1909 opened the first pension in Kaštela.

The classicistic-style Vitturi Park from the second part of the 18th century is in the immediate vicinity of the castle. He was founded by Radoš Micheli Vitturi. It was declared a monument of park architecture in 1968. This park and only a few others like Gučetić’s in Trsteno, Garanjin’s in Trogir and Borelli’s in u St. Filip and Jakov are the rare monuments of this kind.

Not far from the Vitturi park stands the border stone pylon which marked border between domains of noblemen from Trogir and Split.

Beneath Kozjak, on the Balavan ridge (259 m) there is the church of St. Lovre od Ostroga. Ostrog was a village where didići (free peasants working on their own land) had their centre. This village was first mentioned in 1171. The settlement was built on remains of Roman and Illyrian settlements. The church of St. Ivan Biranj (637 m) was built at the highest part of the western Kozjak where an Illyrian fort once was.

On the St. Ivan Biranj’s Day the head of the village was elected, and that is probably why the church got that name.

Kaštel Lukšić is well known for its Miljenko and Dobrila legend. They were Romeo and Juliet of Kaštela, lovers whose love, even though they married, ended tragically.